Cliveden, National Trust

My parents are now at that age when owning a National Trust Membership is essential. I used to to tease them about it but when it means you can pop over to a very large and beautiful house for the afternoon, I'm not complaining. Cliveden is a 20 minute drive away from Bracknell, but it feels like you're stepping into another world. A world of high-tea and aristocracy and dressing for dinner and croquet on the lawn. On Saturday afternoon the sky kept changing from sunny to moody, which gave the place a lot of atmosphere. The house itself is a very upmarket hotel these days, but the grounds and the orangery are still free to roam. We didn't even make it around half of the property, but our cups of Earl Grey were calling. Thankfully, we can pop in again some other time so I can explore the rest. There's a lot of history to the place that I'd quite like to investigate.